Many uses of the internet, such as file transmission, video streaming, and videoconferencing, are best experienced when data can be transferred at high rates. Accordingly, users generally prefer high-bandwidth internet connections. High-bandwidth internet connections can be provided to some buildings, such as single family homes, relatively easily by connecting the building to a high-speed network with a single “last mile” connection.
However, providing high-bandwidth connections can be more challenging when a building is a multiple dwelling unit (MDU) with multiple units that each need their own separate network connection. While a last mile connection can be provided to the MDU, network architecture must be put in place that splits the single network connection among each unit. Accordingly, cable and other telecommunications companies have been developing systems for providing high-bandwidth network connections to customers in MDUs, including providing network access over loops that may be longer than 250 meters. In particular, many telecommunications companies are looking for solutions that can provide network access to MDU customers at speeds of 1 Gbps (Gigabit per second) or greater, at low power and low cost, and with flexible deployment options.
It is generally not feasible in most existing MDUs to install new high-speed network cables, like fiber optic cables or CAT5 cables, throughout the building to provide high-speed internet access to each unit. Instead, some solutions have attempted to provide network access over cables that are already present in the MDU, such as copper phone lines or coaxial cables originally installed for television.
For example, some solutions have used digital subscriber line (DSL) protocols such as G.fast to provide MDUs with network access over phone lines that already extend to each unit in the MDU. However, while speeds over G.fast can be relatively fast, they can be slower than some users would prefer. For example, in some implementations a G.fast network that splits an aggregate network connection with 2.5 Gbps downstream speeds and 1.25 Gbps upstream speeds to an MDU between sixteen units can result in a maximum aggregate data rate of only 700 Mbps per unit. Additionally, in some G.fast implementations network speeds can decrease substantially as the cable to the unit increases. For example, while a unit less than 100 meters away from an MDU's connection to an access network may be able to reach 1 Gbps aggregate data rates over G.fast, another unit in the same building that is 500 meters away from the access network connection may only reach 100 Mbps aggregate data rates due to the longer distance. Due to these issues with G.fast, telecommunications companies have been looking for solutions that use coaxial cable as an alternative and/or a supplement to G.fast in MDU environments.
What is needed is a system for providing network access to units of an MDU over coaxial cables that may already be present in an MDU. Such a system should provide each unit with comparable high-bandwidth network access regardless of their distance from the MDU's initial connection to an access network, and in some cases also allow cable or satellite television signals to be passed over the same coaxial cable.